With a surging rise in employee voices, the need for a conductive workplace culture has also come to the forefront. It is no secret that the working environment of your job can significantly impact your performance. Your technicians and front desk teams spend a lot of their week and their time working. So, to have a hostile or underwhelming workplace culture would make them dissatisfied and unmotivated to try their best. But if it is a place where they like working, chances are not only would they work better, but they would also gladly go the extra mile for it. Herein lies your secret sauce of good employee management.
However, creating that culture is no easy feat. How do you do it? Well, let’s find out together. But keep in mind that not everything works for everyone. Get to know your employees, learn what works for them and narrow it down with the overlap of what goes for your store.
Employee Management Tip #1
Be the Employee You Wish to See
Employee management does not take place in a vacuum. It is a function of your culture. No matter the culture you are aiming for, if you – yourself – don’t adhere to it, no one else will either. So basically, you will be leading by example by following the values of your store’s work culture every single day. But first, you must be clear on what these values are and what is important to you and the store. It may be making a profit, maintaining excellent customer relations, going above and beyond to help, forming a community within and outside your store, or perhaps the job always comes first. Whether your values are constructive or not, you must be clear on what they are. You decide what exactly you want employees to learn from your repair shop. And then you, yourself, act accordingly.
So, whether you expect your employees to work uncompensated overtime, leave exactly as the clock strikes closing time, be friendly with customers, or constantly focus on expanding the profit margin, you must be willing to do it all first. You must walk the walk and talk the talk if you hope to see it in your employees.
Employee Management Tip #2
The Culture Starts with Hiring
If you alone make up the workforce of your repair store, none of this applies to you expect maybe upholding the values of your shop. But if you have a more expanded set-up that requires more than one person to maintain it, then hiring the right people is imperative. No matter how many employees you have, each hire should be finalized only if they have the skills for the job and can fit into your store’s work culture. They may be friendly, collaborative, skilled, humble, and numerous other things they should or should not be to deal with customers properly and maintain good relations between colleagues.
A great help could be an employee handbook – a document detailing your repair store values that you hand to your new hires to ensure they acknowledge and understand them. Of course, skill is the first and foremost determining factor, but staying on such terms with clients and colleagues that they become a representation of you, should be a close second. Perhaps ensuring that they get to interact with people they will be working with and use that as a basis of judgment on how well they fit. While also taking feedback from those employees. But it is vital to acknowledge that to get a good employee; you have to be a worthy employer as well.
Employee Management Tip #3
Transparency is the Best Policy
It isn’t easy to work towards something if you do not know what it is. It lets the staff know what is at stake and what they need to do to ensure the store meets its targets. Keep your employees in the loop on your preferred profit margins and provide weekly updates so that they know where the progress stands. You can even tell them which parts of repair they are doing well in and where improvements are needed to reach the goals. Most of these can be achieved via the aid of a good POS software. Of course, this goes not mean that you should micromanage your employees or set unattainable standards for them.
Employee Management Tip #4
Foster Bonds with Employees and Community
Being there on the ground level with your employees and community fosters bonds, but there are more ways to ensure employee retention and hiring when needed. Good employee management rests on a number of factors. Offering bonuses, paid time off, or other such incentives to your employees on jobs well done or frequency of repair jobs finished. This will motivate them to work harder and promote healthy competition between employees, which can deepen bonds in the workplace. To ensure they have a good relationship with you, have one-on-one conversations with them to listen to their concerns and give performance reviews.
Going further than that, it is essential that you connect with people within the industry as well. Having a friendly disposition towards employees and competition can go a long way. Chances are that if you are a good boss, your employees are less likely to leave, and even if they do for some unrelated reason, they may recommend the store to a fellow talented technician. Not only would it keep your current staff, but it would also allow you to fill in any positions vacated quickly. The store would not have to suffer from understaffing and losing potential clients.
Employee Management Tip #5
Having a POS Employee Management System
Like we said, not all of these would work for everyone. But you know what does work for every repair store? An employee management system within your POS system. You can create user profiles for your employees. Through these, you can track the shift timing of your employees and determine their roles and permissions within the store. The POS can track their productivity and form reports, so you know where your business stands and what needs to be enhanced. So, ensure you have a POS software with an employee management system at your disposal. And get a free employee handbook template from us!
